AuthorTopic: The Yardbirds (Read 2802 times)

Is anyone here a fan of the Yardbirds? They are one of my favorites. They played on the same roster with the Beatles during the Fab's 1964 Christmas concert at the Hammersmith Odeon.....right before Eric Clapton left the band.

yeah but they kind of changed alot in a quick amount of time...i remember how hard it was some years ago try to buy a copy of the album over under sideways down...a used one i was looking for but most seemed roughed up abit...from like over play.....shape of things to come was cool...that was beck....lot of great tunes there yes i like them...yes i do sam i am..i could listen to them on a boat in a moat.... clapton was good in there too but he was in a new band every year....and then came jimmy...he was good for them.....the yardbirds finally made it big in america as led zepplin....

yeah but they kind of changed alot in a quick amount of time...i remember how hard it was some years ago try to buy a copy of the album over under sideways down...a used one i was looking for but most seemed roughed up abit...from like over play.....shape of things to come was cool...that was beck....lot of great tunes there yes i like them...yes i do sam i am..i could listen to them on a boat in a moat.... clapton was good in there too but he was in a new band every year....and then came jimmy...he was good for them.....the yardbirds finally made it big in america as led zepplin....

I believe Eric Clapton quit the Yardbirds because he wanted it to remain a blues band and their single "For Your Love" was too pop for him. I forgot about Led Zeppelin being called "The New Yardbirds" before they changed their name to LZ. I think Jimmy Page wanted to keep the Yardbirds going but Keith Relf and a couple of the others wanted to go in a "softer" direction. Poor Keith Relf.....another one who died at an early age (33) in 1976. Some people believe that he was electrocuted while playing his guitar in a bathtub, but he actually died in his basement studio after his guitar developed an electrical fault.

Keith Relf had some interesting bands after the Yardbirds. He started the original Renaissance wuth sister Jane on vocals , McCarty and John Hawken (Nashville Teens, Strawbs) on keyboards. It was one of the first post-Moodies Progressive Rock combos melding Rock and Classical rather effectively. Later on Relf fronted a band called Albatross which really rocked! If you can find their album or CD (Japanese only) check out "Silver Tightrope", the awesome lead track!

Keith Relf had some interesting bands after the Yardbirds. He started the original Renaissance wuth sister Jane on vocals , McCarty and John Hawken (Nashville Teens, Strawbs) on keyboards. It was one of the first post-Moodies Progressive Rock combos melding Rock and Classical rather effectively. Later on Relf fronted a band called Albatross which really rocked! If you can find their album or CD (Japanese only) check out "Silver Tightrope", the awesome lead track!

I've never heard the Renaissance or Armageddon albums but some of their songs are on YouTube.

The Yardbirds..............Page, Clapton, Beck...............what other group in rock history had the three most prolific guitarist in the group. I've got "Blow Up" on DVD and it's a "strange" 60's movie.

god,i love The Yardbirds.Happenings is one killer single but only reached no.40 in the uk.Ahead of its time,i think.the Little Games album isnt bad either.Relfs solo singles were interesting.Mr Zero is great.

Clapton talks about his Yardbird years in his book. I don't have it with me right now but there's a chapter dedicated to that time. But I believe Deb is right for the reason why Clapton left them... I'll look it up and let you guys know

The Yardbirds are one of my top favorite bands. I think no one else but the Beatles and the Byrds were as experimental as them during the mid-60's. As many people know, the Yardbirds were famous for having probably the three greatest British guitarists in rock history: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. I agree with tkitna that the Beck's period was their best. They had a good string of US Top 40 hits: "For Your Love" (#6), "Heart Full Of Soul" (#9), "I'm A Man" (#17), "Shapes Of Things" (#11), "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" (#13) and "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (#30). However, some things didn't help them: most of their best songs from 1964-1965 were covers or written by outside authors like Graham Gouldman; they only released two proper albums (Roger The Engineer in 1966 and Little Games in 1967) as their early material was included just on singles and EPs in UK (they were the source of two bastard US albums); they were allowed to write their own songs since 1966, but even though they had a great technical ability and were very experimental, their songwriting was not very good. These problems don't stop me from enjoying them a lot.

I am a big fan of this tune, although I know it only because Aerosmith covered it. Funny thing, the song's guitar solo also appeared later on Led Zeppelin's 'Dazed and Confused', which is also my favourite song of theirs.

I am a big fan of this tune, although I know it only because Aerosmith covered it. Funny thing, the song's guitar solo also appeared later on Led Zeppelin's 'Dazed and Confused', which is also my favourite song of theirs.

Friday is Soho day and yet another (once you've passed all the punters getting royally ripped off with ultra-expensive vinyl!) CD purchase.

This time £8 got me the Australian 27-track 'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago' '64-'68' (on Raven) and it's one of the few Yardbirds' compilations to include all the eras of the group.

The group's back catalogue truly is a minefield and this CD appears to be just about the best one-stop option, although even then I think I'd prefer a straight As and Bs approach (10 45s, 2 European only 45s, one 3-track EP = 27 tracks). Still, beggars can't be choosers!